Thursday, December 09, 2010

Embattled Toronto police chief Bill Blair says he's working to regain the trust of the public in the wake of an ongoing controversy over policing during June's G20 summit.

Speaking to CBC's Metro Morning Thursday, Blair said he understands people are frustrated by police actions.

"I'm not asking for a blank cheque here. But I am asking for an opportunity to do our jobs and to complete these processes and gather the evidence," he said. "I know people are anxious ...somebody even suggested to me 'Why don't you just fire somebody?' You have to understand, there's a process involved here."

Blair's interview came 10 days after he suggested that a video showing officers rushing at and arresting Adam Nobody, 27, during a summit protest at Queen's Park in Toronto on June 26 had been deliberately tampered with.

He later retracted those comments, saying the video consisted of two separate segments with five seconds of footage missing in between. He admitted there was attempt to mislead.

When asked Thursday if he was given incorrect information about the incident, Blair said the blame lay with him.

"I was given information the video had a significant gap in it," said Blair.